


The Sand Piranhas

by dragonwings948



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Episode: s08e06 The Caretaker, Escape, Missing Scene, escaping from death and all that, normal everyday shenanigans, sand piranhas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-21 21:57:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9568595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonwings948/pseuds/dragonwings948
Summary: How did Clara and the Doctor escape from the sand piranhas without the vibro-cutters?





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to organise the documents on my laptop better and so I'm basically going through everything in my writing folder. I came across this and thought I should share it! I believe I posted it on Tumblr originally, probably on my Clara ask blog. Anyway, enjoy! :)

_“The sand piranhas will get us long before that.”_

            I gasped in a shuddering breath and scrutinized the flat orange sand around us. The Doctor seemed unperturbed, maybe even still annoyed at the fact that I didn’t have the vibro-cutters we had used on our last adventure.

            “You have a plan, then?” I asked him, huddling closer against the unmovable pillar behind me and watching the sand for any signs of activity.

            “Fresh out of plans,” he said, shrugging his shoulders as best he could. “You have one?”

            “Nope.” I shook my head and sighed. “These, er…sand piranhas. What are they like?”

            The Doctor emitted a heartless chuckle. “You definitely don’t want to meet one. They’ll eat you in a heartbeat. Sense of smell as sharp as a bear, teeth that can cut through stone and metal-”

            “All right, thanks for that mental picture.” A shiver ran down my spine despite the searing heat as I imagined a fish-like thing tearing me to pieces.

            Something shiny and brownish-orange broke through the sand a few feet away from me and promptly disappeared.

            “Doctor. Over there.” I pointed with my chained hands in the general direction of the thing I had seen. It surfaced again, and I realized it was a sort of fin, like a shark.

            And it was directly in front of me.

            “Doctor,” I said, unable to keep sheer terror from creeping into my tone.

            “Well of course they would come after you first. You probably smell a lot tastier than I do.”

            His strange choice of words broke through my worry enough to ignite my sense of sarcasm. “Still need to work on your compliments a bit, Doctor.”

            The fin appeared again, a foot closer.

            I pushed against my chains, but all they did was rattle. “It’s about time for your last-minute escape plan!”

            “Teeth that can cut through stone,” the Doctor muttered.

            I glanced over to see he was looking up at the pillar I was chained to, eyebrows drawn together in deep thought.

            “What?”

His eyes turned onto me, wide and serious. “Clara, you need to duck.”

            “Sorry?”

            _“Duck!”_

The fin broke through the sand and the rest of the creature followed, a fish- like animal with beady eyes, small arms, and a wide jaw filled with needle-like teeth. It lunged at me and I ducked my head and shoulders, straining against the metal chains. The sand piranha soared right over my head, catching a few strands of my hair, and crashed into the pillar above me.

            With a screeching sound that made me cringe, the pillar toppled over and an odd, strangled cry pierced the air for only a moment before it became silent.

            I sighed and stood up, the chains over my upper body becoming loose without the supporting pillar. I turned and looked behind me to see that the top of the pillar had crushed the sand piranha. Dark red blood began to pool in the sand and I looked away.

            “You really meant it when you said they could cut through stone.”

            Another piranha fin appeared not a foot away from me and began to circle my feet. I jumped away from it, but the fin followed me.

            “Clara, you need it to lunge at you again.”

            The piranha began to emerge from the sand and I looked down at my chained hands. _Teeth that can cut through stone_ and _metal._

“Oh, god,” I sighed as the piranha gazed up at me with hungry eyes. I crouched down, unsure of how high it could jump. Stretching the chain that connected my hands to a metal ring in the ground, I sighed. “Come on, sand piranha. Come on…”

            It launched itself at my head and I turned just in time so that its teeth grazed right through the chains. I staggered backward as my hands were freed and the chains feel into the sand. The piranha soared straight back into the ground, its fin appearing a moment later, zooming in my direction.

            “What now, Doctor?” I asked as I lowered myself to my knees at his side, tugging at his chains.

            “Well _that’s_ certainly not going to work,” he said, nodding at my hands. “Jacket pocket on the right. Sonic screwdriver.”

            I sighed and maneuvered my hand past the chains over his chest to reach inside his jacket. I rose to my feet to get a better angle and felt the lining of a pocket underneath my fingers.

            The Doctor looked over my shoulder. “Not to worry you, but you should hurry. The sand piranha is coming this way.”

            “I don’t feel it!” I hissed.

            His chin brushed my shoulder as he looked down. “Oh. My right, your left. Sorry.”

            I huffed and ran to the other side of him, stuffing my hand inside his jacket. My fingertips collided with cool metal of the screwdriver and I squeezed my hand underneath a chain to try and grab the sonic.

            “Clara!” the Doctor yelled in my ear, a definite note of pain in his voice.

            I glanced up and met the eyes of the sand piranha, its jaws clamped to the Doctor’s arm. Without another thought I curled my hand into a fist and punched the piranha right in one of its eyes. It let go of the Doctor and slunk back into the sand.

            Finally, I gripped the sonic screwdriver and pulled it free. I fumbled with it for a moment before pointing it at the Doctor’s hands and pressing the button. It buzzed and the chains fell from his hands. I directed it toward the remaining restraints and they fell slack.

            “Good.” The Doctor jumped up and grabbed the sonic from my hand, wincing as he moved his injured arm. “Now let’s get out of here before they start to swarm.”

            I fell in step running beside the Doctor. _“Swarm?”_ I glanced behind me to see several fins congregating around where the Doctor and I had been.

            “I’ll have to get my coat mended now,” the Doctor muttered under his breath, glancing at his torn sleeve

            “Maybe you should have two,” I told him, trying to suppress a smile. I couldn’t pass up the chance to poke fun at him, seeing how he had mocked me for having two jackets earlier.

            The Doctor turned his head to glare at me. “Shut up.”

           

           


End file.
